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Can vitamin therapies help Parkinson's Disease?

I'm getting a lot of help from the B12 thread on this site to cope with my own health issues - I'm wondering, because my brother suffers from early onset Parkinson's, whether anyone has experience or information about whether vitamins can help Parkinson's.

7 Replies:

Hi Jan, I can tell you that about 50% of people with parkinson's are low on methylb12/adenosylb12 by those very low medical standards. By the standards we have been using it is probably a much higher percentage. I've never researched in general about parkinsons. Good luck. It is also possible to have more than one thing wrong.

Hi Freddd, Thanks for replying, I did think about asking you on the other thread, because I imagined you might have come across something in your researches. This is very interesting! Do you have a reference for it (since my brother is difficult to convince)? It's also interesting that symptoms of B12/folate deficiency and Parkinson's seem to have overlap. jan

Hi Freddd, Thanks for replying, I did think about asking you on the other thread, because I imagined you might have come across something in your researches. This is very interesting! Do you have a reference for it (since my brother is difficult to convince)? It's also interesting that symptoms of B12/folate deficiency and Parkinson's seem to have overlap. jan Hi Jan, My experience has been that if one sibling has b12/folate deficiencies then most of the others do as well even if they manifest differently. My kids have about a 90% overlap but there are differences. Every neurological disease I can think of shares about an 80% overlap with b12 deficiency, except for FMS, CFS and ME which have essentially 100% overlap. In one study, and I have read lots, it named a whole list of disorders in which approxomately 50% were low, below 170 or thereabouts. Since the level needed to not have methylb12 responsive symtoms appears to be about 1500, probably 99+% of them are low compared to that. B12 deficiencies can look like dozens of other disorders. I understand that Sally's book talks about how b12 deficiency is misdiagnosed in many disguises. When I googled "methylcobalamin parkinson's" I got 28,000 plus returns. Lots of reading there.

I'm getting a lot of help from the B12 thread on this site to cope with my own health issues - I'm wondering, because my brother suffers from early onset Parkinson's, whether anyone has experience or information about whether vitamins can help Parkinson's. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. jan Other supplements to consider are the EFA's, which most diets are completely deficient in. Fish oil, flax, primrose, wheat germ, and pumpkin seed oils are all very good. I have heard that glutathione is often depleted in Parkinson's patients. High doses of antioxidants such as vit C and E may be helpful, as this helps to destroy free radicals in the body. There was a study where people with Parkinson's were given 3,000mg of vit C and 3,200 IU of E daily. The results suggested that doing this can slow the progression of the disease. There is a book called Prescriptions for Nutritional healing, that this is from. Chelation therapy may be helpful, but both this therapy and the antioxidant therapy you would need to work with a holistic practitioner or your doc, if they are enlightened. Lastly, acupuncture, in particular scalp acupuncture, can be very helpful, especially if it is early in the disease. Please try this - it works, and can help some of the contributing problems, like depression. Best wishesDOM

Hi Jan, My experience has been that if one sibling has b12/folate deficiencies then most of the others do as well even if they manifest differently. My kids have about a 90% overlap but there are differences. Every neurological disease I can think of shares about an 80% overlap with b12 deficiency, except for FMS, CFS and ME which have essentially 100% overlap. In one study, and I have read lots, it named a whole list of disorders in which approxomately 50% were low, below 170 or thereabouts. Since the level needed to not have methylb12 responsive symtoms appears to be about 1500, probably 99+% of them are low compared to that. B12 deficiencies can look like dozens of other disorders. I understand that Sally's book talks about how b12 deficiency is misdiagnosed in many disguises. When I googled "methylcobalamin parkinson's" I got 28,000 plus returns. Lots of reading there. Hi Freddd, I googled the same - and as you say, lots of reading! B12 seems to be a dopamine precurser, for example. When you say "disorders in which 50% were low, below 170" do you mean 170 was the level of serum B12? I'm absolutely amazed that the level not to have m-b12 responsive symptoms is around 1500 - puts into perspective how many people may be suffering. Thanks, again, jan

Hi Jan, In one study I read, where the people were picked by symtoms, not test results, on peripheral neuropathy. They found that the people in the study, whose serum cbl level was an average of 700 at the beginning, with some over 1200, were dose proportionatly responsive to 120mcg and 1500mcg of methylb12. Their comments indicated that if they had applied the "usual" tests (serum cbl, Hcy, uMMA) to qualify for the study that 2/3s of the responders and strong responders would not have qualified for the study.

Other supplements to consider are the EFA's, which most diets are completely deficient in. Fish oil, flax, primrose, wheat germ, and pumpkin seed oils are all very good. I have heard that glutathione is often depleted in Parkinson's patients. High doses of antioxidants such as vit C and E may be helpful, as this helps to destroy free radicals in the body. There was a study where people with Parkinson's were given 3,000mg of vit C and 3,200 IU of E daily. The results suggested that doing this can slow the progression of the disease. There is a book called Prescriptions for Nutritional healing, that this is from. Chelation therapy may be helpful, but both this therapy and the antioxidant therapy you would need to work with a holistic practitioner or your doc, if they are enlightened. Lastly, acupuncture, in particular scalp acupuncture, can be very helpful, especially if it is early in the disease. Please try this - it works, and can help some of the contributing problems, like depression. Best wishesDOM Hi Dom, Many thanks for this, it's extremely helpful - and I'll look out for the book you recommend. jan